


Stand Together

by confusedkayt



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, Mentions of Cancer, Shatterdome Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-29
Updated: 2013-10-29
Packaged: 2017-12-30 19:27:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1022501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/confusedkayt/pseuds/confusedkayt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stacker Pentecost left practically nothing behind him - except, of course, his family.</p>
<p>Two days after the closing of the Breach, Mako and Herc deal with the details of a death; Stacker's planning nudges them to do so side-by-side.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stand Together

The paperwork is disquieting. It perturbs her that a life like Stacker Pentecost’s ends the same way a failed design project does, with a neat typewritten page reallocating leftover resources for future use. Mako knows that it is irrational, but it angers her to see him reduced to numbers, meager little sums that are their own form of injustice. A life like Stacker Pentecost’s, and the estate is too small to warrant more than an hour of PPDC legal’s time.

The rider attached to the will is both better and worse. It is personal. It feels like him, all the more because the sentiment is hidden in dry language and bullet points. It is a list, nothing more, of various people whose welfare her father had taken it upon himself to ensure. The unstated request that she do so in his place could not be clearer.

The conference room is too bright. The lawyer is staring at her with too much sympathy, hands hovering as though to touch Mako’s and that is something she cannot abide, not just now. She has to excuse herself. Thankfully, there is no one in the hallway outside the washroom to see her stop, brace an arm against the wall. These people – her father had loved them so dearly that he made them known to her in death. She doesn’t recognize all of the names; that hurts and it doesn’t. Her father was a man who kept secrets for others. These people – many of them likely do not know that they have benefited from her father’s protection. He would never have shamed them by revealing their situation except now, at the last. It is his way.

She has to suck in a breath, deep and slow, at the level of trust he has placed in her. Stand in my place, he said. That is what the rider to his will tells her. Stand in my place. You are strong enough to do what I can do no longer.

She _is_ strong enough. Even if she did not know it of herself, she would not dream to disappoint him. She is certainly too strong to lean, wet-eyed, against the wall by the washroom any longer.

And so she returns, collects the papers, signs on the dotted line. She knows what she must do, and she knows it will be… difficult. She has the foresight to stop by her quarters and drop off the will itself; she can spare Herc the numbers, at least. She will need his help to decode the rider, or at least a clearance to investigate the names herself. Her father was a military man, and it is likely that these gathered names are families of those who died or were injured on his watch.

She takes another moment to pause, to breathe, to brace herself for the walk through the corridors, for the mix of comfort and pain that marks her interactions with her fellows here, now, two days after the end. The loss and the victory are still too keen for all of them.

Her thoughts are interrupted by three hard thuds on her door. That’s unusual. Raleigh’s knock is softer, faster, and no one else comes here.

The peephole in her door reveals Herc, wiping his hands hard down his thighs, uncomfortable. She straightens, but today she cannot manage a smile. She opens the door. “What can I do for you, Marshall?”

“Herc,” and he’s trying to smile but that won’t fool anyone. “Nothing official. Heard you saw the lawyers, thought I’d swing by and…” He swallows, pats his pockets.

This has already gone further than it should without a closed door to keep her father’s secrets and Herc’s. “Please come in,” she invites, and Herc looks upset and relieved all at once but he steps in without complaint. He hovers, awkward, jerking out of the way when she brushes by him to close the door.

“Here,” he says without preamble, thrusts a standard-issue USB stick into her hands. “He… He knew, didn’t he. Told me to let you have it. I’m sorry I didn’t bring it by any sooner, but I…”

“Please don’t apologize,” and Herc looks miserable. “Two days, Herc,” and he settles, just a little, at the sound of his name, “Only two days. And it has been two busy days for us both.” She takes a deep breath. “I did see the lawyers,” and it is easier to look at the wall, somehow. “They gave me…” Words fail her, and she simply picks up the rider and passes it to Herc. “I don’t know how to find these people. Do you know them?”

Herc’s too-hard breath hisses between his teeth. “The fellow at the top – a good man, a widower. Good mechanic. Used to work on Coyote Tango alongside his wife.” Herc’s jaw clenches. “Leukemia, of course, the both of ‘em.”

He’s trying, failing, to keep his voice steady and Mako is startled to see that his eyes are wet, almost brimming over. His glance catches hers and he drops his eyes, swallows hard. Mako reaches out, finds a notebook and a pen on her desk. “Will you write down what you know about them?”

Herc nods, jaw clenched too tightly to answer her, but he accepts the pen and paper. Mako does him the courtesy of looking away, and heads over to her desk to start her laptop. She inserts the memory stick and Herc makes a soft, strangled sound. “You don’t have to,” he says, staring at the pen in his hands. “Not while I’m here. Could be personal…”

“I trust you,” she says, and Herc stills. She waits for one beat, two, and her patience is rewarded when Herc raises his head, meets her gaze. She nods, and one corner of his mouth tugs up just a little. She nods again, and returns to her computer. Her slow, bracing breath feels loud in the small room. She shouldn’t need it, but she does. It takes more force of will than she would like to slide the mouse, click to open the drive.

It’s full of folders upon folders, neatly labeled by month and year. She chooses one at random and her breath catches. Each folder contains a handful of photos. She clicks to open one and – it has been a very long time since she and Chuck Hansen played on the floor beneath her father’s desk. They are captured, tiny and solemn and so very young, assembling a toy robot from gears and pulleys. Herc and her father are in the frame, also, shoulder-to-shoulder in the back corner of the room. There is no mistaking the fondness, the happiness, in their gaze. “Come here,” and if there is a tremor in her voice, who will blame her? “Come here. You should see…”

Noise behind her but she can’t tear her gaze from the screen, not yet. She manages, though, when she hears Herc’s wet gasp from just over her shoulder, a choking noise that can only mean he is fighting the beginning of tears.

She gestures at her little folding stool. “Come here,” she says, and Herc is silent. “Let’s look.” On impulse she reaches out to grab Herc’s hand. “Come. We will remember them together.”

Herc meets her eyes, nods once, hard and sharp, and settles himself onto the stool beside her.

**Author's Note:**

> This work is written as part of my participation in the Pacific-Rim-a-Thon, where I am part of Crew Coyote Tango. I wanted to make something for both Rangers who Drifted with Coyote Tango, and though he is not physically present, I like to think that Stacker Pentecost is the animating force here. Readers of my longer work need not fear I'm going to go haring off on lots of side projects; this is the only side-story I intend to produce while that one is still a WIP, and if you like, you can consider this a background scene from "Kaiju? I Hardly Knowju," but knowledge of that work is not necessary to read this one.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed and I'd love to discuss with you!


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